


United We Stand

by Morninglight (orphan_account)



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Ableism, Ableist Language, Autism Spectrum, Bullying, Class Issues, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Enlightened self-interest, F/M, Fantastic Racism, Greek and Roman Mythology - Freeform, Grief/Mourning, Humanities, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-18 13:52:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7317802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Morninglight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minerva Smart was always a bit different, even before the bombs fell. Now living in a world where just about everything can kill her, she's going to need a few friends to help her find Shaun. The first of them is Preston Garvey, a man who wants to save the Commonwealth from itself.</p><p>Preston Garvey was only too happy to see the Vault Dweller in his darkest hour. She's smart, willing to help out despite her own problems and capable of inspiring others to lend a hand. In short, the perfect General.</p><p>The Woman Out of Time and the Last Minuteman are going to prove that in the Commonwealth, you can never have too many friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Trigger warnings for death, fantastic racism, grief/mourning, suicidal thoughts, violence, emotional and mental child abuse, ableism, bullying and classism. New story with a new autistic Fem!SoSu.

Minerva was the only child of Polish refugees Josef and Martina Krakowski, born in the early years of the oil shortage when the United States was still accepting skilled immigrants from the European Commonwealth. Her father saw the writing on the wall and parlayed his engineering degree into a job at RobCo Industries under Mr House himself, naming her after the Roman goddess of wisdom as a form of self-congratulations at getting out just before the Resource Wars. When she was found to be legally blind without thick prescription lenses, Minnie’s fate was sealed: she had no choice but to be as intelligent as Josef, for he would accept nothing less. So at the age of six she was enrolled into the best private school he could afford and was relentlessly tutored by her mother, who had been a science teacher back in Poland, at home.

            No one thought to ask Minnie what she thought of this. Anything less than perfection in science, mathematics and robotics was swiftly punished with days of being ignored at the dinner table. She learned to recite RobCo’s successes on command, her lessons in algebra as tasteless as the dry sandwiches with a scraping of butter her mother packed for school lunch, and her projects as robotic as the drones she built under Josef’s exacting eye. The private school was a very expensive one and the students reminded her of that every time she walked through the wrought-iron gate in her old clothing and thick glasses.

            Her parents wanted her to learn the secrets of science and technology. Minnie would have much preferred to be left alone with a good book as she attempted to glean some understanding of why she was different to seemingly everyone else. The choice was rarely hers to make.

            Twelve years of education at that very expensive private school saw Minnie graduate as valedictorian of the senior class of 2070. Her father smugly made the assumption that the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, the greatest bastion of scientific academia in America, would be her destination.

            But for the first time in her life, Minnie made her own choice, and applied to Harvard for a Bachelor of Liberal Arts – and received a full ride scholarship on the Humanities stream. There she met a man named Nathaniel Smart, who was studying Economics on the military officers’ programme, and made the second defiant decision of her life to marry him as they both understood what it was to be cursed with a name that demanded academic excellence.

            He went to war and she went to law school. Both of them were disowned by their families – Minnie because she studied things her father thought was useless and Nate because he was a Protestant who married a Polish Catholic. Even during the lean years of her graduate studies and his service in Anchorage, neither of them regretted it.

            She graduated in 2075 from Suffolk County School of Law and found herself working in the library there as her academic knowledge of the legal system was vastly superior to her actual performance as a trial lawyer. If Minnie wasn’t in the library, she was tutoring students and preparing her PhD thesis proposal. Some of her father’s work ethic and ambition remained.

            Nate was honourably discharged in late 2076 and their son Shaun conceived on his arrival home. Between his discharge pay and her wage, they were able to afford the deposit on a house in the suburbs that included a bonus Mr Handy robot and household whitegoods from General Atomics. Minnie was petty enough to jump on the offer and send a photo of her and Nate standing alongside Codsworth to her parents. Her father’s response was written in Polish and not fit to translate for Nate’s ears.

            Shaun was born in March and much to Minnie’s surprise, her mother came to help with the birth. A Polish woman could forgive many things for a grandson, even if she was disappointed that they named him Shaun after Nate’s Irish grandfather. When she left Sanctuary Hills to return to Lexington, Martina told Minnie that she was proud of her for living the American dream on her own terms. It would be the last time they ever spoke.

            By October, Minnie started to believe that it would be alright. That she, Nate and Shaun would live and thrive where Europe didn’t and people weren’t permitted to in China. When Nate got the opportunity to address the Fraternal Post in Concord with the promise of an accounting job with Veterans Affairs, she listened to his sombre speech in the mirror and wondered if he just wasn’t being pessimistic. The Chinese had been driven back at Anchorage. America had won.

            She was so confident that she nearly refused to sign up for the Vault just up on the hill until Nate insisted. To make him happy, she did so.

            Ten minutes later, running for the Vault after a hasty farewell to Codsworth as Nate carried Shaun, she was grateful for his pessimism.

            Twenty minutes after the bombs fell, she felt her entire body freeze as Nate looked beseechingly at her and wondered if dying in the nuclear blast wasn’t the better option.

            One hundred and fifty years later, she screamed incoherently as a bald man with the coldest gaze she’d ever seen shot Nate in the head and his friend pulled a crying Shaun from the dying soldier’s arms.

            Two hundred and ten years later, she fell out of her containment pod, scraping the skin on her palms, and took her husband’s wedding ring from his cold dead hands. Shaun was gone and she was going to save him.

            It wasn’t until she saw the flattened ruins of what had been Sanctuary Hills that the emotional trauma overwhelmed her and she went into the sort of meltdown that she hadn’t experienced in years. Her parents had always punished such displays with harsh silence, refusing to dignify what they saw as tantrums by acknowledging them, and so Minnie had learned to suffer silently. Even Nate didn’t realise just how much she ‘acted normal’ around him because she didn’t want to make him unhappy.

            Miraculously, Codsworth – a battered and almost cheerfully deluded version of the robot who helped her cope with Shaun – rescued her and helped her back to the ruins of her house. At least the mortgage had gone up in nuclear fire like the rest of the world. He remained silent, letting her purge the poison from a wound she didn’t know she had, and then produced a can of purified water from the stash Nate had kept locked in the basement.

            She drank it and asked hoarsely if he’d seen Shaun. He hadn’t but offered to search the neighbourhood. All they found were more giant cockroaches and flies that Codsworth butchered to provide the first meal she’d eaten in centuries. Even little more than grilled insect, the meat tasted delicious.

            “You can’t give up on Shaun, mum,” the Mr Handy insisted. “There are still people in Concord. A rough crowd but maybe they’ll know something.”

            Minnie took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right. Someone killed Nate and took Shaun.”

            “Precisely.” His oculars drooped a little in concern. “You should rest though, mum. A few hours won’t hurt. I’ll look around and see what can be salvaged.”

            “Thank you, Codsworth,” she said with a sigh. Now that the emotional overload had passed, she felt wrung out but clear-headed, if exhausted.

            Codsworth made up a bed for her on the red couch Nate had been so proud of and covered her with Shaun’s old rocket blanket. Her heart aching and eyes sore from the weeping, Minerva Smart sought refuge from this world of rust and ruin in the abyss of sleep.

…

“Up here! If you want to help, grab that laser musket! The Raiders have us trapped.”

            After seeing what the female Vault Dweller had done with a few Molotov cocktails, Preston Garvey felt absolutely no guilt in begging her for help. She blinked up at him, the enormous black-rimmed glasses on her face obscuring her gaze, and then looked at the charred corpses that had been some of Gristle’s Raiders. Then she promptly vomited what looked like chunks of half-digested radroach meat. He sympathised with the sentiment, even if it didn’t help him or the other Quincy survivors.

            She wiped her mouth and went for the laser musket and Julian’s last few fusion cells. “How do I load this?” she asked, her accent just a little off from the Commonwealth one he knew so well.

            “Put the fusion cells in the chamber like so.” Preston demonstrated with his own laser musket. “To fire, crank it and point.”

            “Thank you. I don’t think these people will help me.” Her tone sounded very detached.

            “No, they won’t,” Preston confirmed grimly. Then he heard a couple Raiders banging on the door Sturges was holding shut. “Please, help us!”

            He went inside and hoped that she would. There was no other hope for their survival.

            Judging by the sounds of violence that followed, she’d entered the Museum of Freedom, and within about half an hour he heard the musket being cranked and the two bastards on the other side dying. Daring to open the door, he saw the Vault Dweller’s hands shaking as she looted them of weapons and ammunition. “You’d better get inside quickly,” he told her gratefully. “Gristle and his friends are probably on the way.”

            Once the door was shut and barricaded again, Preston regarded her. “I don’t know who you are, but your timing is impeccable.”

            “I’m glad to help,” she replied quietly. “What’s going on?”

            “We’ve been driven across the Commonwealth, that’s what’s going on!” Marci Long snapped. “Who the hell are you anyway?”

            “Minerva Smart,” the Vault Dweller answered, glaring flatly at the Asian woman.

            “Easy,” Preston said, stepping between the two. “Marci, we need her help.”

            “A Vault Dweller’s next to useless in a situation like this,” Marci retorted.

            “Is that what they call me? Vault Dweller?” Minerva sounded confused.

            “That’s what we topsiders call people from the Vaults,” Sturges explained genially. “Minerva, huh? Greek goddess of smarts and all, right?”

            “Roman goddess of wisdom and intellect,” Minerva answered automatically. “Athena was the Greek version.”

            Preston couldn’t help but smile a little despite the desperate situation. “Well, we could use some divine intervention here if you’re willing. I’m Preston Garvey by the way.”

            Minerva looked at him through those thick black-rimmed glasses. Under the deep blue suit, faded and filthy as it was, her body was soft and bordering on plump. More grime and dried blood splotched her pale skin while her razorgrain-blonde hair was cut into lank bangs around a high-cheekboned face. “I promised my help,” she said with some asperity.

            “Thank you!” Preston smiled at her. “We have a plan but we need someone who can… well… operate a set of power armour.”

            Her eyes widened and he realised that they were the green of melon flesh. “I know how to in theory,” she finally said.

            “You’re one up on me,” Preston said. “Sturges?”

            “We need you to go grab the fusion core that’s powering the museum,” the mechanic said. “Then you need to get out there, get in the suit, get the mini gun attached to the vertibird and blow those bastards to hell.”

            Minerva folded her arms and regarded the mechanic with a jaundiced expression. “You look more muscular than me,” she pointed out.

            “None of us have slept more than two hours in two days,” Preston said softly. “I’m sorry to put this on you, but you’re probably the one in the best shape at the moment.”

            The Vault Dweller looked down at her boots. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It just seemed like a logical question to ask.”

            “I understand.” And Preston did. From the looks of it, Minerva had her own problems. But she was trying to help, which was more than he could say for most of the Commonwealth since Quincy.

            She dropped the old olive-green duffel bag slung over one shoulder. “If I fail, there should be enough firepower in there to get you out. Go to Sanctuary Hills and tell Codsworth that Miss Minerva said, ‘That she couldn’t find Shaun and recall code 98456’. That will reset him and you can programme him as you need.”

            Mama Murphy, hitherto silent, chuckled softly. “You won’t be using that recall code any time soon, kid,” she observed cheerfully. “Woman out of time, woman out of hope. You’re what the Commonwealth needs, even if you and them don’t realise it.”

            Minerva turned on the old oracle. “What do you know?” she asked – no, pleaded. Preston realised that the emotional cues he was familiar with were visible. He just had to observe her for a bit to read the more subtle signs of them.

            “You won’t die. Just like you didn’t die in that icebox.” Mama Murphy’s faded blue eyes almost glowed and Preston wondered where she’d gotten the drugs to fuel her Sight. “But there’s something coming…”

            “What? Please, wyrocznia, help me!” Preston didn’t know what she called Mama Murphy but he could hear the desperation in her voice.

            Mama Murphy wavered and then sighed. “It’s big. And horned. Death itself.”

            Minerva wavered and then squared her shoulders, turning to face Preston and the others. “I need you to take up arms. There are guns and ammunition in the bag. If something terrible is coming then I will need the help. Or we all die.”

            “What? You’re supposed to save us!” Marci protested.

            “We need to save each other. Or the Raiders or this horned death thing will kill us all,” Minerva pointed out. “United we stand, divided we fall.”

            Sturges stood up and rummaged in the duffel bag, pulling out a decently modded 10mm pistol. “She’s right, Marci. Can’t expect her to do all the work. Besides, these assholes killed your kid. Don’t you want some payback?”

            The former shopkeeper paused and then nodded angrily. “Fine. Though we’ll probably all die anyway. Jun, grab a gun.”

            “Yes,” her shell-shocked husband agreed as he stood.

            Preston touched his hat in gratitude to Minerva, who nodded brusquely and headed out the other door, grabbing the Vault Boy bobblehead on the way. Maybe she liked to collect them or something.

            He then loaded the last of his fusion cells into his laser musket and glanced at the others. “Alright, our job is sniping and suppression fire. If it’s on the roof or coming for Minerva, we shoot it. Understood?”

            The Quincy survivors nodded and despite himself, Preston felt a sense of hope. Mama Murphy had never been wrong and with the Vault Dweller quoting the Minutemen’s motto, things might just turn around.

            He looked to the balcony doors. They just had to survive this.

…

“You were amazing! I’m glad you’re on our side!”

            Preston’s smile of relief and gratitude was so infectious that Minnie found herself returning it. The rangy, umber-skinned man in the pinned-up cowboy hat and fawn leather duster had taken out the sniper on the roof before she even saw him and that strange weapon of his blew the monster’s head into meaty chunks. If that were the sort of thing that the bombs had created, she was rather surprised that humanity still survived.

            “I’m glad you’re on mine with shooting like that,” she told him, compelled to return the compliment. “What will you do now?”

            “Funny you should mention a Sanctuary Hills,” he said. “Mama Murphy keeps on telling us that there’s a place called Sanctuary where we’ll be safe.”

            “Aside from the bugs we killed yesterday, the only thing there is Codsworth,” Minnie agreed. “You’re welcome to it. There’s four, maybe five intact houses and plenty of ruined ones to salvage.”

            “That’s good to know.” Preston smiled at her yet again. “You should come back with us.”

            She hugged herself. “I’d like to but someone stole my son and killed my husband in the Vault. I need to find him.”

            Preston reached out and touched her shoulder. “That’s terrible. If there’s any way I can help…”

            “Your son’s alive.” The oracle spoke again and Minnie turned in her direction.

            “Where is he?”

            “I don’t know.” Of course not. Oracles never gave clear, precise advice. “But he’s alive and I know the best place to start looking. The great green jewel of the Commonwealth – Diamond City.”

            “Mama Murphy’s got a point,” Preston agreed. “Look – if you come back with us, I can draw you up a rough map.”

            That was… help she could use. “Thank you. And I will.”

            “Why are we relying on something she saw when stoned out of her gourd?” Marci demanded.

            “You got any better ideas?” Sturges drawled in his thick Southern accent.

            Of course Marci didn’t, so she finally shut up.

            “So let’s go.”

            It was a sombre march through the streets of Concord, the procession stopping every few steps to strip the Raiders of anything useful. Preston pulled out a hunting knife and butchered the big monster, which he called a deathclaw. It seemed life in Massachusetts had become one of eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. Minnie was going to need all the friends she could get.

            “Glad to see the last of this festering boil on the ass-end of the Commonwealth,” Sturges observed laconically as they left the township. “Err, no offence if you’re from here or anything.”

            “No, Concord was always a hive of speakeasies and chem dens,” Minnie told him dryly. “The deathclaw was actually something of an improvement.”

            Then they were attacked by gigantic mosquitoes that Preston shot down before she realised that they were there. He then removed anything useful from the dead bugs and dead… Did that cow have _two heads_?

            Minnie swallowed. This was a very strange world and she suspected it was going to get a lot stranger.

            They were walking past the old Red Rocket when a dog came bounding over, barking joyfully. “Dogmeat!” Mama Murphy crowed.

            Sturges was eyeing the Red Rocket. “Found my new holiday home.”

            “Your idea of heaven, eh? Might be some good salvage there.” Preston grinned at Sturges before leaning over to rub Dogmeat’s ears. “We’ll need to get set up at Sanctuary first though.”

            The dog followed them down the hill where Preston stopped at the statue commemorating the Minutemen. “That’s the best omen I’ve seen all day,” he observed with a grin. “The statue celebrating the old Minutemen. This must be the Old Northern Bridge, where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.”

            “It is,” Minnie confirmed.

            “Well, as I said, it’s the best omen I’ve seen all day.” Preston grinned at her.

            “Glad to see you’re happy, boss,” Sturges drawled before shepherding Marci, Jun and Mama Murphy over the bridge.

            “Thanks for coming with us,” Preston told Minnie, smile still lingering on his lips. “From the looks of it, this is a pretty good place.”

            “It was before the bombs fell,” Minnie agreed, rubbing the back of her neck. God, she needed a bath, but there was no clean water.

            “’Before the bombs fell’…?”

            “There’s a Vault on the hill. It was a cryo facility.” Minnie tried to tell the tale in as terse a tone as possible. “We just beat the bombs. And then someone unfroze us just to kill my husband and take my son. Then froze me again.”

            “Oh my God.” Preston sounded suitably horrified. “Is there anything I can do?”

            “That map to Diamond City will help.” Minnie managed a shaky smile. “Maybe some lessons in how to survive this place?”

            Preston’s lips pursed and he nodded. “Look, you can never have too many friends in the Commonwealth. And if you don’t mind taking the long way to Diamond City, we might be able to kill two radroaches with one stone.”

            “Oh?” No doubt Preston was going to ask another favour of her.

            “Yeah. We got a request for help from Tenpines Bluff just before… everything went to hell at Quincy.” Preston’s gaze was now haunted. “There’s trouble with Raiders. If you don’t mind heading that way with me, I can give you some survival lessons and you could lend a hand. You’re pretty damned effective at dealing with Raiders and getting people motivated.”

            Minnie shifted uncomfortably. “Why are you asking me for help?”

            His amber eyes were sombre. “Because you saved us in our darkest hour. And on a pragmatic note, I need to leave Sturges here. If I fall, he’s the last Minuteman.”

            “You’re citizen soldiers?” Minnie remembered the old stories.

            “That’s right. Ready to defend the people at a minute’s notice.” Preston’s voice was now proud. “Two of us are better than one, Minerva. You help me and I will personally kick in every door in Diamond City looking for answers about your son.”

            Even she could tell the sincerity in his promise. Minnie nodded. “Alright, Preston. I’ll do it.”

            “Thank you.” He looked across the bridge. “We won’t be able to leave for a day or so. I’m tired, we need fresh water and food, and sleep.”

            “Understood.” She herself felt exhausted, having hauled power armour from Concord to here. “I’ll get Codsworth to help out. There’s plenty of couches to sleep on until we can find proper beds.”

            “That’s wonderful. If he’s willing, Sturges can get him to help build things that we’ll need around here. Water purifier, defences…” Preston looked to the southeast. “Huh, looks like a farm across the river. I’ll see if they’re willing to trade for food.”

            “That makes sense,” Minnie agreed. “Trade strengthens links between communities and promotes a sense of unity.”

            “Exactly!” Preston flashed her another grin. “How about we go set up a fire, have ourselves a bowl of deathclaw stew, and get some shuteye? Tomorrow will be time enough to plan for the trip to Tenpines Bluff.”

            She nodded and followed him across the bridge. For some reason, she felt a little less intimidated by this strange new world with the Minuteman by her side.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Trigger warning for death, violence and fantastic racism.

“Is there anything you can’t do?”

            Preston felt compelled to ask the question as Minnie checked the weapons from Concord and decided whether to keep or scrap them. The Vault Dweller was able to extract the last useful screw out of a gun or bit of cork from leather armour with little more than a screwdriver and knife. Even Sturges admitted she was his superior at salvaging components and almost his equal when it came to technology.

            After sleeping like the dead from just past sunset to mid-morning of the next day, the Quincy survivors had woken up to a hot breakfast of broiled bloatfly and Sugar Bombs mash (not in the same bowl, thank God) courtesy of Codsworth. Minnie had woken up a few hours earlier and started on clearing the debris from the intact houses so that sleeping bags could be laid down. He was amazed at her ability to find anything that might be salvageable and wondered at her patience at picking through the little things for spools of copper wiring or screws.

            “A lot of things,” Minnie responded, taking him literally. Preston noticed a tendency of her doing that, so he made sure to keep his statements unambiguous. “I never got the hang of Matka’s żurek – her sour rye soup. I make pretty decent pierogi though.”

            “Pierogi?” Preston rested on his haunches, eyeing Minnie curiously. She’d managed to find enough water to clean herself up and the sunlight brought out the golden highlights in her blondish-brown hair.

            “Polish dumplings,” she replied, setting aside a 10mm pistol for modding. “Matka means ‘mother’.”

            “I don’t know what dumplings are but they sound delicious,” Preston said. “You up to heading out tomorrow?”

            Minnie nodded. “Codsworth will dig a trench tonight that should let us lay down pipes from the river to the Rosas’ old place for fresh water. Or maybe even just a wooden trough, though we’ll need to put safeguards on it to purify it and keep the rubbish out.”

            “Sturges knows how to build water purifiers,” Preston assured her. “Is Codsworth up to that kind of labour though?”

            He didn’t like the idea of the robot slaving away while he rested, even if the Mr Handy had been built for that sort of thing.

            Her smile was a little sad. “From what he’s told me, he’s happy to have someone to serve again. But if Jun and Marci can help dig the trench, it will certainly help.”

            Preston looked over at the shell-shocked couple. “They’ll have to. Codsworth is helpful but I don’t want to overwork him.”

            She nodded in agreement. “Neither do I. But he’s got the strength, so to speak, to break through the soil so that Jun and Marci can dig it out. Your friends, especially Jun, are showing the effects of extended deprivation. It will be some time before they can do hard physical labour again.”

            Her tone was detached as she parted a barrel of what looked like good steel from the rest of a poorly maintained pipe pistol and Preston wondered how she could empathise more with a robot’s loneliness than the Longs’ physical condition. Marci had been sharp with her, true, but surely Minnie could understand she was acting that way because of grief?

            “Jun lost a lot of appetite since his son was killed in Lexington,” he said instead. “We got harried across the Commonwealth from Quincy to Concord. Everywhere we stopped, something or someone else tried to kill us.”

            Minnie sucked in her bottom lip. “So Marci’s in the anger stage of grief and Jun in the denial or depressive? I’ll try to remember that. But work is good. Work… keeps you from thinking too much about what has been lost.”

            Preston belatedly realised that the Vault Dweller had watched her husband be shot dead while trapped in a cryo pod. “Oh God, I forgot, I’m so sorry-“

            “Don’t be. It’s easy to be so focused on your griefs that you forget about others.” Minnie tossed the rotten wooden stock of the pipe pistol into a pile of flammable refuse.

            “That’s very perceptive of you,” Preston observed softly.

            “It isn’t me. It was Nate.”

            “Your husband?”

            “Yes.” Minnie dropped the remnants of the pipe pistol into the discard pile. “You would have liked him. He was very good with people. A lot of people made jokes about accountants getting on better with numbers than people but… he wasn’t like that. He was very kind and charming.”

            “You’re a pretty decent person yourself,” Preston told her sincerely. “You didn’t have to help us.”

            “Of course I did. I couldn’t leave you to die at the hands of those maniacs, assuming I could have even gotten past Gristle and the deathclaw.” Minnie looked up at the mid-afternoon sky before rising stiffly, brushing off her Vault suit. “We have fuel for tonight’s fire and enough usable steel to run a pipe from the trough to the Rosas’ old kitchen sink for cooking and washing.”

            Preston looked down and realised she’d salvaged all the barrels of the pipe pistols. That was… pretty clever because Sturges managed to escape with his blacksmithing and welding tools. Most old houses had indoor plumbing, so it wouldn’t be that hard to set it all up.

            “You may not be able to do everything but you can do a whole damn lot,” he said admiringly.

            Minnie shrugged in her uncomfortable manner. “Tata was an engineer and Matka a science teacher. They expected me to follow in their footsteps, so I was taught appropriately from a young age.”

            That certainly explained her knowledge of these things. Though Preston, who was learning to read her muted emotional signals, could tell she didn’t sound happy about it. “I take it you wanted to do something else?”

            She nodded. “Yes. I was supposed to study at the Commonwealth Institute of Technology but instead I applied for Harvard, a great university in Boston, and studied humanities. Then I went to Suffolk County School of Law and studied law. I got a job as a legal librarian – lawyers, those who interpreted the law and defended or prosecuted others who broke it, would come to the library and I would help them find the statute they needed.”

            “Law’s something that’s been absent from the Commonwealth for a long time,” Preston said with a sigh. “Especially since the Minutemen were wiped out but for me.”

            “Yes. It sounds like the Wild West and you are the sheriff trying to make things better.” Minnie reached out and tapped his hat. “You even have the hat.”

            He flushed a little. “I believe the Minutemen can be rebuilt. If we come back, things like Quincy or what happened to your husband and son might stop.”

            “It’s worth a try.” Minnie gave him a sidelong glance with those melon-green eyes. “I should go and help with dinner. We’re going to Tenpines tomorrow, right?”

            “Yes, we are.” Preston smiled at her. “There’s also a couple of potential settlement sites between there and Diamond City. I want to leave early tomorrow so we can introduce ourselves to the farmers across the river too.”

            Minnie nodded. “I understand. Finding Shaun is important but so is this.”

            Preston met that resigned gaze squarely. “I meant what I said about kicking in every door in Diamond City for answers. We’ll find Shaun, I promise.”

            “Thank you.” Minnie smiled bravely and turned away. “Dinner will be ready by sunset.”

            “I’ll be done with my patrol by then.” He was getting used to the borders of Sanctuary and noting where they could put defences. “I’ll see you later.”

            “Of course. Stay safe.”

…

“The Minutemen are still around? After Quincy, I’d heard…”

            Blake Abernathy bit his tongue as Preston nodded. “We’re still around. Just need to rebuild.”

            Minnie studied the farm with its crops of strange-looking tomatoes and the melons that Lucy offered them a few caps to pick. Preston told her this was a very successful farm. She saw the stone marker near the melons. “You’ve had trouble with Raiders?”

            “What? Yes.” Blake’s voice was bleak. “Why bother to farm when you can steal food?”

            “You lost someone.” Minnie nodded to the stone marker.

            “My eldest, Mary. She told the Raiders where to go and they shot her like a dog.” Blake’s shoulders hunched in grief. “They even took the locket from Connie’s family, the bastards.”

            “I’m sorry for your loss. Losing a child is hard.” How many parents had lost their offspring in Massachusetts – the Commonwealth? How many more would because the only law seemed to be the person with the biggest gun?

            No wonder Preston wanted the Minutemen to be rebuilt.

            “You’ve been there too.” Blake looked at her sympathetically. “If you can find those bastards and get Mary’s locket back, I’d be grateful.”

            “We will try,” Minnie promised. “Where did the Raiders come from?”

            “From up near Tenpines Bluff,” Blake told her.

            Preston’s eyebrows shot up. “Might be the Raiders giving that settlement trouble too. We’ll check it out.”

            “Thank you, both of you!” Blake’s smile was grateful. “If you need to trade, Connie does a bit of that on the side.”

            “We don’t have a lot to trade at the moment but when we come back through, we could definitely use some seed tatos,” Preston said with a smile. “The pre-War settlement over the river now has some people there and we’ll hopefully attract some more.”

            “The Minutemen just over the river? That’s fantastic news.” Blake looked a lot more hopeful now. “I won’t keep you. Godspeed, both of you.”

            “Zyczenia powodzenia,” Minnie responded automatically. “I’m sorry, it means the same thing in my parents’ language.”

            “I’ll take any blessing in any language I can get, ma’am.” Blake touched his forehead and returned to tending the… tatos.

            “That was well-spotted,” Preston murmured once they were back on the road and heading east. “The more settlements that we help, the more supporters we have. If we can clear out the major threats, we’ll see more traders come up this way, which will link everyone together better.”

            “You sound like Nate,” Minnie observed. “He would have been very good at this.”

            “You’re not doing so bad yourself,” Preston told her kindly.

            Minnie shrugged awkwardly and said nothing more. Preston was a very kind man who still believed the best of everyone. She could do some things, but not all of them, and he was better with people.

            It was a five-hour slog to Tenpines Bluff and, as Preston predicted, they needed help with Raiders. Except it was Raiders who were down south near the Corvega plant just outside of Lexington. But they did confirm that there was a small group of Raiders operating out of the old USAF base on the hill, apparently a subsidiary gang of the bigger one at Corvega.

            Preston was able to talk the settlers into letting them have a drink of water and break at the farm. “We’ll be dealing with the Raiders up on the hill and then the ones at Corvega,” he promised.

            “Good,” said the woman, whose name was Anna. Her husband, who was picking radgrubs from the tatos, was called Wade. “The bastards have run rampant for far too long.”

            Minnie rubbed her aching legs through the Vault suit. She needed something else to wear but the clothing Codsworth had salvaged from Sanctuary was ill-suited to travelling everywhere. Except for Nate’s old military fatigues – but she couldn’t bear to wear them, not like she did his dog tags and wedding ring.

            Lunch was a piece of cold broiled bloatfly and a glass of water. Then it was time to march up to the hill and engage the Raiders.

            They approached in stealth and found the thieves engaged in a fight with vicious mole-like creatures. Minnie focused on the animals while Preston took out two of the four Raiders with his musket. Then it turned into a sniper duel that ended in two more dead Raiders and her with a bullet graze on her temple.

            “Dammit!” Preston swore as he dabbled at the bleeding gash with a wet scrap of cloth. “We need to get you out of that Vault suit, Minnie. It’s too damn obvious.”

            She had to agree with that. Maybe the Raiders would have something suitable.

            They didn’t, most of their rags riddled with radlice and radticks, but the leather armour was salvageable. On the way, Preston was telling her about the Commonwealth wildlife, a good many of which had ‘rad’ in their names because the lingering radiation from the nuclear bombs had mutated them. He taught her how to recognise and pick the herbs which were good for medicines and even chems, though he didn’t much like the latter unless it was an emergency. So far, the Minuteman was as good as his word.

            Inside, there were more Raiders, including a woman with a mini-gun. Thankfully they’d found stimpaks on the scum, so Preston getting hit in the arm by the tiny bullets wasn’t as bad as it could have been. He took off his duster and gloves to reveal a rangy body clothed in faded black cotton and worn leather. “You were lucky,” Minnie observed.

            “Indeed,” Preston agreed, wincing as she pulled away his bloody sleeve and looked at the wound. “Use the other stimpak on yourself. Wounds get infected really bad out here and we don’t have any hubflower paste to dab on it yet.”

            “Of course.” She injected him and watched the shredded muscle knit itself up with shiny pink-white scar tissue. “That will ache in winter.”

            “Fantastic. I’ll be able to predict the weather.” Preston sounded almost serious but Minnie was learning that he had an understated, deadpan sense of humour. “We’ll loot these bastards, find out what else is useful, and head back to Tenpines Bluff for the night. Corvega’s about a half-day’s patrol to the south.”

            “Works for me. That mini-gun alone will provide me with a lot of useful components.” Before anything else, Sanctuary needed power generators, because the water purifier that she knew how to build required fuel or electricity. If she could find a decent stock of aluminium, she could even set up a windmill to power it, which would save precious oil for other things.

            “Exactly.” Preston sighed and gave her an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry we’re going miles out of our way, Minnie.”

            He really was a good man. “I understand. The shortest distance might be a straight line, but it isn’t always the best way. Once we are done here, we have two settlements for the Minutemen. That can only be to the good, yes?”

            “Yes, but-“ Preston sighed once more. “You really are something amazing, Minnie. Your son’s missing but you’re still willing to help others instead of focusing on your own problems.”

            She looked down at the toolbox right in front of them, fiddling around with the lock. She’d taught herself how to pick locks after leaving her keys in her dorm room once. It was a useful skill. Once it clicked open, she found a few things, including a silver locket that had a faded photograph inside of a woman who looked a bit like Connie Abernathy.

            “You said it best,” she finally observed. “’You can never have too many friends in the Commonwealth’. Whoever took Shaun is dangerous and well-organised. I will need the help of those who have helped me.”

            “And you’ll have it,” Preston promised. “I just wish we could go straight to Diamond City and get answers.”

            “Me too,” she agreed. “But if wishes were fishes, cats would feast.”

            “True that.” He still sounded sad and Minnie wondered why he took on every burden that he came across. It was very kind of him but worrying did no good. Life had taught her that, if nothing else.

            She mourned for Nate and was worried for Shaun. That was undeniable. But Minnie knew she didn’t know this world well enough to go off on her own, so that meant she needed Preston’s help. And the Minutemen were worth helping.

            Too many children were taken from their parents. If she could stop that, maybe she could atone for failing Shaun.

…

Preston was beginning to think that Minnie was well named. She was smart and wise like her divine namesake, able to see the bigger picture, and had a sense of compassion tempered with necessary pragmatism. He just felt lousy about the obstacles between her and Diamond City. Corvega was a big place and from what he understood, it was a major hub of Raider activity. And Lexington had feral ghouls on top of that.

            They followed the old train tracks past Starlight Drive-In, which was one of the potential settlement sites old Ezra Hollis had talked about setting up, and Minnie agreed to clear it out for future use because they were more or less going past anyway. They got enough mole rat meat for a couple days’ worth of rations, mole rat hide to repair his duster, and bone to stiffen the leather armour that Minnie was now wearing over her Vault suit. While there, he taught her how to cache the heavier components that there were plenty of at Sanctuary, and they even found some pre-War food and drink to take with them.

            Corvega was nothing short of hell but once Minnie hacked the terminals and shut off the turrets and spotlights plus activated the Protectrons, it got a lot easier. It was a scavenger’s paradise and they looted anything that could be remotely useful, taking advantage of the workbenches set up by the Raiders to mod the more valuable weapons and armour. He felt grief though to see the Vault Dweller get used to looting the people she killed.

            They were leaving the factory when Minnie, fiddling around with her Pipboy, picked up a distress signal. It seemed a bunch of people were requesting assistance or evacuation from Cambridge, which was about two hours’ walk south of Corvega, and not that far from Diamond City. “We’d better help them,” the Vault Dweller said with a heartfelt sigh.

            Preston nodded in agreement. “We’re two hours away. I don’t know who Scribe Haylen is, but Cambridge has a fair bunch of ghouls, and it’s on the way to Diamond City from here.”

            “Ghouls?” Minnie’s eyes widened.

            “Irradiated humans. Some of them maintain their sentience but others go feral when their brains rot.”

            “Wampir?” Preston was getting used to Minnie putting some things in Polish. If it helped her adapt to the Commonwealth, so much the better.

            “Vampire? No. Zombies.” Preston mimicked the shambling gait of the ghouls.

            “Ah. Zambi.” Minnie grimaced. “Lovely.”

            “Yeah. One killed the Longs’ son. They’re fast, mindless and give off rads.” He sighed and looked south. “We better get going if we’re going to save these people in Cambridge.”

            Two hours later, they were being thanked by Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel for saving the remnants of his recon team from the Cambridge ghouls. As night was falling, the soldier from the south offered hospitality in the base they’d set up in the police station. Minnie accepted, though Preston was concerned by the team’s presence. He didn’t know a lot about the Brotherhood, only that they ruled in the Capital Wasteland and held a tight grip on technology they found.

            The Brotherhood had plenty of rations and medical supplies though – and Preston was glad to receive a day’s worth of fusion cells for his musket. Danse, outside of his power armour, was a big, dark-haired man whose eyes bore the grief of too many lost friends. Preston could sympathise with that.

            “We’re pinned down and the radio tower here’s broken,” Danse said grimly. “We need to get word to the Brotherhood in the Capital Wasteland.”

            Minnie scratched the back of her neck. “Arcjet Systems isn’t too far away from here. If I recall, they specialised in long range transmissions. Maybe you’ll find what you need there?”

            Scribe Haylen, a slender woman with long ginger hair, nodded. “I was just about to suggest that.”

            “I can’t go alone and Knight Rhys is too injured to go with me,” Danse observed, running a hand through thick dark hair. He was a handsome man, rugged and muscular, though lacking a bit in charisma. In some ways, he made Preston think of a male Minnie – they were both very grave, very serious individuals. “Could you lend a hand?”

            Minnie’s lips pursed and frustration flickered across her face. “We can, if you can wait a day or three,” she finally said. “Preston and I are Minutemen and we’re currently on the tail-end of a mission. We only came south because we picked up your transmission just outside Lexington.”

            He liked the sound of Minnie calling herself a Minuteman, even if it seemed her endless patience was finally being tested.

            “I’d heard the Minutemen were slaughtered at Quincy by Gunners,” Knight Rhys, a dour-faced man with a scarred nose, said sceptically.

            “Most of us were,” Preston admitted through gritted teeth. “But I’m alive, Minnie’s with me, and once we’ve finished this mission, we’ll have some more.”

            “Minnie the Minuteman. That’s… quite the name.” Danse’s mouth quirked in weary humour.

            “My full name is Minerva Smart,” the Vault Dweller replied calmly. “Now, will you accept the help we can offer or would you rather wait for Knight Rhys to heal?”

            “We have rations for three more days,” Danse said. “Can you be back by then?”

            “Easily. We just need to head back, tell some people some good news, and resupply,” Minnie confirmed.

            “Or, if you want, Diamond City’s just across the river,” Preston said softly. “We could go there, see if we can find out anything about your son, then help Paladin Danse before heading back north.”

            Minnie threw him a look of utter gratitude. “I didn’t know we were that close!”

            “Neither did we,” Danse observed in some surprise. “I know what course of action _I’d_ suggest but I will also admit to a considerable amount of bias.”

            “I… Yes. Thank you, Preston.” Minnie’s green eyes shone with moisture behind the thick spectacles. “We will leave early in the morning. Hopefully there will be answers.”

            “If there’s any way we can be of assistance without compromising our mission, just ask,” Danse said gravely.

            “Paladin, ut sapiens est?” Rhys asked in a completely foreign language. “Non tribus tantum nos intuentur. Nescimus quid et missio.”

            “Filium meum factum est invenire. Occisus est a viro firmamentum.” Minnie’s voice was crisp with reprimand. “Non qui diffidunt oblatum auxilium.”

            “You’re right,” Danse said in English, flashing the Knight a reproving look. “My apologies, citizen. Rhys is responsible for security on our team and it has been a difficult mission.”

            “I can understand wariness and concern,” Minnie told the Paladin. “But in the Commonwealth, it’s not wise to bite the hand offering aid in good faith.”

            “Affirmative.” Danse inclined his head to the Vault Dweller respectfully. “If I may say, your Latin is exceptional. I didn’t know anyone outside of the Brotherhood still spoke it.”

            “I learned it when I was young,” Minnie said with a shrug. She did that when complimented. “May we turn in? Tomorrow will be a long day.”

            “Of course.” Danse nodded to them both and walked over to his power armour to presumably make sure it was still intact.

            Preston rubbed the back of his neck. He could understand how Rhys felt because he didn’t much trust an outside military force himself. But still, leaving the Brotherhood to the ghouls wasn’t the right thing to do and he was glad Minnie had a basic sense of decency.

            _She’ll make a fantastic General,_ he realised as he went to lay out their sleeping bags. _I think she can really bring the Commonwealth together._

And he’d stick by her side the entire way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Trigger warning for death, violence and fantastic racism.

“You just can’t leave me out here!”

            The stocky dark-haired woman in the paperboy cap and red leather coat clenched her fists as the gate to Fenway Park – which was now Diamond City – remained shut on her. Then she took a deep breath, muttered something under her breath, and turned to face Minnie and Preston.

            “You want into Diamond City, right?” she asked, hazel-green eyes glinting.

            “Yes,” Minnie said slowly.

            “Good. Play along.” She turned towards the radio. “What’s that, you’re a trader from Quincy? With enough supplies to keep Myrna stocked for a month? Fancy that!”

            “Piper, the Mayor said…” The speaker on the radio was young and nervous.

            “You wanna tell crazy Myrna about missing out on all those supplies?”

            “Alright, alright, I’m opening the gate.”

            Piper winked at Minnie and Preston. “Better get inside before old Danny catches onto the bluff.”

            “Okay…” Minnie decided to follow her suggestion as the gates rose to reveal an irate grey-suited man who screamed ‘politician’.

            “You devious, rabble-rousing slanderer! I’ll have your printer scrapped for parts?” he yelled at Piper.

            “Is that a statement, Mayor McDonough? ‘Tyrant mayor shuts down the press!’” Piper got right in the Mayor’s face as Minnie looked nervously at Preston. What was going on?

            “You print lies in that filthy newspaper of yours!” McDonough spat. “I’ll have you and your sister thrown out!”

            Given that just two blocks and around the corner had been a haven for big green monsters that Preston called ‘super mutants’, Minnie knew it would be a death sentence. She decided to try and get them to change the subject. “Excuse me,” she began, only to be looked pointedly at by Piper.

            “Why don’t we ask the Vault Dweller? Do you support free speech?”

            “I’ve always supported freedom of the press,” Minnie immediately said.

            “A free press is part of the basis of a strong society,” Preston agreed, giving her an approving look.

            “I’m sorry she dragged you into this,” McDonough said, flashing Piper a filthy look. “You look like Diamond City material. I’m Mayor McDonough and welcome to the great green jewel of the Commonwealth. What brings you here?”

            “I’m looking for my kidnapped baby son,” Minnie admitted.

            McDonough’s expression became opaque. “That’s terrible. What makes you think he might be here?”

            “Another kidnapping you won’t investigate,” Piper said flatly.

            “Hmmph. That’s enough, Piper. One more article and I’ll throw you and that little sister of yours out.” McDonough turned dismissively and walked towards the inside of the stadium, leaving them outside.

            “So, a big Diamond City welcome from the Mayor himself. Feeling honoured yet?” Piper observed sarcastically.

            “McDonough might have had an attitude because of my presence,” Preston said softly. “He’s always had issues with the Minutemen.”

            “No,” Piper said, expression grim. “Look, why don’t you stop by my office? I think you’re my next interview… and I might be able to give you some leads.”

            “Give me one now and I’ll think about it,” Minnie countered.

            “Go stop by Nick Valentine’s office. He can find anyone, anywhere.” Piper’s smile was thin. “If it pans out…?”

            “You’ll have your interview,” Minnie promised.

            “Good.” She headed towards the stadium and Minnie rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand.

            Preston squeezed her shoulder sympathetically. “I’ve actually heard of Nick Valentine. How about we trade a few of the extra guns, grab something at the noodle stand, and then track him down?”

            Minnie nodded. “That’s a really good idea. I think there’s more going on than we realise.”

            “That’s the understatement of the century.” Preston squared his shoulders. “Come on.”

…

“Another stray coming in from the rain.”

            “But it isn’t raining,” Minnie observed as the young woman in the denim vest and ragged floral skirt turned from the filing cabinet.

            Preston might have smiled at her literalness but the girl’s lips were already tightening. “We just need to find Nick Valentine for a missing person’s case,” he said gently.

            “You’re too late. Nick Valentine became a missing person’s case two weeks ago,” she replied grimly.

            “Where did he go?” Preston asked. “We’re Minutemen. It’s our job to help people in need.”

            “He went after Skinny Malone and his Triggermen,” the girl said with a sigh. “Somewhere around Boston Common.”

            “Damn.” There wouldn’t be much but body parts. “Look, we’ll check it out, okay? We need his help and from the sounds of it, he might just need ours.”

            “Nick’s tough but Malone’s nasty,” she said hopelessly. “But… bring what’s left of him home, if nothing else.”

            “We will,” Preston promised, putting a hand on Minnie’s shoulder to guide her out of the office.

            The Vault Dweller looked absolutely miserable. “What do we do now?” she asked.

            “We go speak to Piper. She might have some ideas on where Malone is. Otherwise, it’s Goodneighbour, and that’s clear across the Boston ruins.” Preston rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “We still have a couple days to help Paladin Danse, so we can spend the rest of today looking for Nick.”

            She flashed him a grateful look. “Thank you, Preston. You’ve always got a good idea of what to do.”

            He flushed a little. “You’re welcome. Your son’s kidnapping – from what Piper implied, it’s part of something bigger.”

            She nodded in agreement. “Exactly. So let’s get this interview over with. I don’t like the idea of everyone knowing my business but… we could also spread word about the Minutemen.”

            “That’s a good point.” Preston decided to come out with it. “Look, I’ve been thinking over the past few days. The Minutemen have always been led by a General. Someone who can see the bigger picture, no matter what’s going on.”

            Minnie was no fool, whatever her quirks. “You want me to be General.”

            “I do.” Preston held up his hand to hold off any protest. “I’m good at leading a squad or holding a perimeter no matter what. Hell, I can even talk people into supporting us. But you’ve got the guts, smarts and wisdom to bring the Commonwealth together. You see details that other people miss. You’re a Vault Dweller from the pre-War years – that makes you special. But you’ve lost a husband and son. That means you know the grief others have been through.”

            “I keep on getting us side-tracked – first promising to help Paladin Danse and now finding Nick Valentine,” she pointed out. “I’m not a leader, Preston.”

            “You’ve been making decisions for other people since you left the Vault,” he countered. “We haven’t always gone the straightest line – but as you said, the shortcut isn’t always the best one. Nick Valentine’s got a good reputation around here. Helping him won’t just help find your son, it will raise the profile of the Minutemen, just as this interview will. You’re thinking like a General, even if you don’t realise it.”

            “I don’t think I am. But if you calling me General helps the Minutemen, then call me General,” Minnie finally said.

            Preston smiled in relief. “Thank you, Minnie. Thank you! You don’t know what this means to me.”

            She looked at him strangely. “But I do. The Minutemen are your life, just as Shaun is mine. You helping me look for Shaun means the world to me.”

            The Vault Dweller headed back out into Third Street and Preston hurried his steps to follow her. He’d help her find her son if he had to kick in every door in Boston.

…

“Nicky’s missing? Jesus Christ…”

            Piper pulled off her paperboy hat with its press ticket stuck in it as Minnie clasped her hands behind her back. “Someone called Malone might have him. I give you your interview, you tell me what you know on this Malone.”

            “If Nick’s gone missing, the interview can wait,” Piper told her. “I know Malone’s leading a group of Triggermen out of a Vault near Boston Common. Rumour is he kidnapped the daughter of a wealthy Brahmin trader from Bunker Hill.”

            “Another missing person. You mentioned kidnappings that McDonough won’t look into earlier.” Minnie narrowed her eyes at the reporter. “I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”

            “Wow, Blue. That’s a pretty intense stare you’ve got.” Piper patted the seat. “Take a seat.”

            “Blue?” Minnie sat down on the faded couch.

            “For the Vault suit. Even without it, you’d stick out like a sore thumb.” Piper smiled slightly. “So here’s the deal: you do an interview, I’ll join you in the hunt for Nicky. I have some skills – and I can use a gun.”

            “Done. We have one day and a bit to find Nick. Then we have to return to Cambridge to help Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel.” Minnie always kept her promises and she’d told Danse she’d be back in three days at worst.

            “Boston Common’s not that far away,” Piper assured her as she reached for a pen and notepad. “So, you’re from a Vault. What was it like in there?”

            Minnie closed her eyes, remembering the awful cold. “It was some kind of cryogenic facility. We were frozen there the day the bombs fell.”

            Preston took a seat next to her, his warmth comforting. He was like Nate in some ways, though with a patience her husband lacked.

            “Wait, you’re pre-War? Wow – ‘the Woman Out of Time’.” Piper scribbled something down. “What do you think of the Commonwealth? I know it’s less than what you’d know but-“

            “Seeing everyone rebuild gives me hope,” Minnie interrupted softly. “Frightened, desperate people made the bombs go off. But humanity survived and is working on getting better.”

            “People are still frightened and desperate,” Piper observed. “Your son’s kidnapping isn’t unique, though I assume the circumstances are. What happened?”

            “Someone broke into the Vault, unfroze us, shot my husband in the head and dragged my screaming son from his arms as I watched helplessly from a cryo pod,” Minnie answered flatly. “I got frozen again and then defrosted a few days ago.”

            “Oh my God.” Piper sounded sympathetic. “In the Commonwealth, there’s rumours that an organisation calling itself the Institute kidnaps people. Do you think that they had something to do with it?”

            “The Institute. Holy shit…” Preston breathed.

            “I don’t know,” Minnie admitted. “Maybe.”

            “No one ever knows for certain.” Piper wrote some more. “Do you have anything else to say to the people of the Commonwealth, to those who have lost family members?”

            “I do.” Minnie opened her eyes and looked directly at Piper. “Never give up. Stand together and don’t let the Raiders, the Institute and every other bit of scum divide you. That’s why Preston and I are reforming the Minutemen – because you can never have too many friends in the Commonwealth and we need to look out for each other.”

            “That’s… pretty inspired. And good to know. Losing the Minutemen was a kick in the guts for the Commonwealth.” Piper closed her notepad and rose to her feet. “I’ll let Nat know I’m heading out and we’ll go look for this Vault. Probably 114 – it’s been picked over so much by scavvers that no one would think twice of people coming and going.”

            “Works for me,” Minnie replied, grateful to have the woman’s help. If Preston knew the greater Commonwealth, then Piper obviously knew the ruins of Boston. “Thank you for your help.”

            “Nick’s good people. And I have a feeling you’re going to make the news quite a bit.” Piper smiled a little. “I look forward to being there for it.”

            Minnie didn’t. Unfortunately, she might not have a choice. “Let’s go find Nick Valentine,” she suggested a little desperately.

            Hopefully _he_ wouldn’t want or need anything from her after the rescue.

…

Nick Valentine was a synth, a product of the Institute, and an escapee from the bastards. Preston hadn’t stopped to think about the possibility that the bogeyman of the Commonwealth might be involved in the kidnapping of Minnie’s son – but damn, it sure made sense.

            The Vault Dweller swallowed and asked, “Are you alright?”

            “Been better. Gotta love the reverse damsel in distress scenario.” Nick’s voice was self-deprecatingly dry as he lit up his cigarette. “But what led our heroine to risk life and limb in search of an old private eye?”

            “I need your help. But now isn’t the time to discuss it.” Minnie was talking as she went over to pick the room where Nick had been trapped clean of aluminium and a bobblehead. She was really obsessed with those Vault-Tec things, Preston noted, having found one at Corvega too. “We need to get out of here.”

            “Exactly, before they realise Muscles-for-brains hasn’t come back.” Nick’s tattered lips smiled at Minnie. “So you’ve got a Minuteman and Piper Wright on your side. Interesting menagerie.”

            “Colonel Preston Garvey of the Commonwealth Minutemen,” Preston said crisply. “And that’s the General you’re talking to.”

            Nick’s eyebrow rose. “General, huh?”

            “Yes,” Minnie said. “Now let’s go. I will explain later.”

            More Triggermen arrived as they were leaving and when the firefight was over, they’d netted themselves a nice amount of submachine guns that could be broken down into scrap – and ammo which was almost always good as caps. “I can’t believe I’m getting used to killing and looting bastards like these,” Minnie said sadly.

            “It’s rough, I know,” Preston told her gently. “But they’ve chosen to attack us and we need resources if we’re going to rebuild the Minutemen.”

            “I know. It’s just…” Minnie’s shoulders hunched. “Let’s go.”

            Soon enough they caught up with Malone and his new flame, the girl who was reportedly kidnapped. “Dammit, Nicky! You come into my house and shoot up all my guys!” the gangster yelled. “Why shouldn’t I riddle you and your friends with lead now?”

            “Because I owe your two-timing dame for trying to hit a home run with my noggin,” Nick replied dryly.

            “You should’ve left it alone, Nicky. This isn’t the old neighbourhood. I have a good thing going in this Vault and I ain’t giving it up!”

            “Poor little Valentine. Sad you got beaten up by a girl? I’ll just run home to Daddy, shall I?” Darla was trying to sound seductive but she came out screeching. Preston saw Minnie wince as she spoke.

            “Because, dumbass, you’ve managed to rile up the Minutemen,” Piper observed contemptuously.

            Malone’s pudgy face paled. “I thought the Minutemen were dead.”

            “No thanks to the Gunners,” Preston said bitterly. “You let us walk and we’ll consider it finished.”

            “We should rub them out!” Darla shrieked.

            Malone was already shaking his head. “No, Darla. I won’t screw around with the Minutemen. There are some lines I won’t cross.”

            The mobster gave them all a flat look. “You have a count of ten to get out of here or I’ll shoot you.”

            “You’re all talk!” Darla spat, throwing down the baseball bat. Preston and the others missed the rest of the breakup because they were too busy leaving. On the way, he reminded himself to send someone back for the bags of concrete that would do a settlement somewhere some good.

            Once outside, Minnie put the heel of her hand to her eyes again after pulling off her glasses. “Trust the Irish crime clans to still exist,” she muttered. “They’re like radroaches.”

            “You’re not wrong,” Nick agreed with a sigh. “Now, I know you said you needed my help, but how’d you know to find me?”

            “Your secretary told us,” Minnie said, donning her glasses again. “My son’s been kidnapped.”

            “And the Institute might be involved,” Preston added.

            Nick’s expression was bleak. “I need to give Ellie a raise. As for the rest, meet me back in Diamond City so I can go over the case with you.”

            Minnie nodded, looking up at the night sky. “We need to help someone else tomorrow, but we can return the day after. Shaun needs to be found but… this person can’t wait.”

            “When the Institute’s involved, a day or two won’t make a difference,” Nick agreed sadly. “A day or so will let me get my bolts tightened and my noggin checked. You go save someone and I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.”

            “Thank you.” Minnie’s smile was a weak weary thing.

            “No, thank _you_. Malone would have kept me locked up. Don’t fancy telling Darla’s father she took off with that jackass willingly though.” Nick touched his fedora and turned for Diamond City.

            “I’ll go back with him and find my notes on the Institute,” Piper promised. “I’ll also let Diamond City know the Minutemen saved Nick Valentine and stopped a ruthless gang in its tracks.”

            “But we ran away from Malone,” Minnie pointed out, perplexed.

            “Because he knew we could take him down. He’s lost face and he’s lost his woman. But he might still stay alive.” Piper smiled and nodded to them both. “Stay safe, hmm?”

            “We will,” Preston promised. “See you day after tomorrow.”

            Piper trotted to catch up with Nick in the distance and the Colonel looked at his General. “Back to Cambridge?” he asked.

            Minnie nodded. “Yes. I know that if I go to Nick, I won’t get back in time. And I made a promise to be there and help Paladin Danse.”

            That said a lot of good things about Minnie, even if Preston was worried at the Brotherhood’s presence in the Commonwealth. “Good to see your word is your bond,” he said quietly.

            “If it wasn’t, what kind of person would I be?” Minnie asked with a perplexed expression. “Honesty is always best. So is keeping my promises.”

            “And that’s why you’re my General,” he told her with a smile. “Now let’s go before it gets too dark.”

            She nodded and followed him through the streets of Boston, following the path Nick and Piper had taken so they could find their way back to Cambridge. Tomorrow they could help Danse, then go back to Diamond City, then return to Sanctuary. Preston didn’t like the delays more than Minnie did, but he’d promised to help find her son. It was the least he could do for the woman rebuilding the Minutemen.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Trigger warning for death, violence, grief/violence, emotional trauma and fantastic racism. Finally back to Minnie and Preston.

 

It was about an hour after dawn when they arrived at the Cambridge Police Station on the promised day. Minnie wanted to chase up the leads involving Shaun with Nick; she wanted to sleep for a week. But she had made a promise and her word was her bond. Paladin Danse and his Brotherhood had done nothing to her. She was obliged to help them as per her promise of a few days ago.

            The courtyard had been cleaned up and Danse, looking exhausted, was standing guard on the steps with his laser rifle in his hand. His dirt-brown eyes brightened on seeing them. “It’s good to see you,” he growled. “Did you find anything about your missing son?”

            “A possible clue. Once we are done with Arcjet Systems, I will be able to chase it up,” Minnie responded with a sigh.

            Danse nodded curtly. “Then we best get moving. The sooner we can contact our Brothers in the Capital Wasteland, the better.”

            He nodded to the doors. “Feel free to resupply and then we’ll move out. Arcjet’s a short hike to the west and I know a way that will let us avoid the ferals in Cambridge.”

            “That’s a good idea,” Minnie agreed. She didn’t ask if Danse was able to keep up. Soldiers hated when you asked that.

            Within the hour they were heading west and Danse was at point, moving easily in his power armour. Preston took the rear, his keen eyes watching their back trail, and Minnie tried to look like she knew what she was doing around the two soldiers.

            There were bloodbugs, a few raiders and some dogs on the way. Everything useful was acquired from them and the remains of a caravan’s camp, ambushed by the raiders, and Minnie had an image of her life as an endless cycle of killing, looting, scrapping and chasing after Shaun as obstacles were placed in her way. But she could no more ignore someone in need of help than she could not stop breathing.

            Danse explained the mission at the front of Arcjet and Minnie looked up at the soldier. “I actually came here several times as a child,” she told him. “Arcjet was a great favourite of my father’s when he tried to inspire me into a scientific career.”

            “You left your Vault?” the Paladin asked in some surprise.

            “No. I remember when this wasn’t a ruin. My Vault was a cryo facility.” She nodded at the research lab. “Because RobCo provided automated workers for Arcjet, my father often had access to the labs. I think I can help you here.”

            “In other words, don’t assume this is the General’s first rodeo,” Preston added with a slight smile. He liked calling her that and while Minnie wasn’t overly happy about being a General, if it helped her find Shaun, she’d take the title.

            Danse’s thick eyebrows rose. “My apologies, General.”

            “Bez obaw,” Minnie assured him. “No worries. I assume you’re worried about security?”

            “Yes. I’m assuming standard turrets and Protectrons?”

            “Probably. Preston deals with the former and us with the latter.”

            “Affirmative.” Danse saluted and put on his helmet. “I’ll take point, General.”

            “Please do.” Minnie was happy to have a bulwark of steel between her and whatever security measures Arcjet, who specialised in space exploration and long-range communication, had cooked up.

            Danse entered the facility just as Preston caught her shoulder. “You’re doing great as General,” he told her with a smile. “Just thought I’d tell you that.”

            Minnie flushed. “Nate always said that the best military officer gives orders and trusts his soldiers can do as they’re told.”

            “Well, he gave you some good advice.” Preston patted her shoulder. “Let’s go. Sooner we’re done here, sooner we can return to Diamond City.”

            She nodded and led the way inside.

            The facility was silent and when they found a group of destroyed Protectrons, Danse sucked in a sharp breath. “Institute synths,” he hissed. “Not a drop of blood, not a spent bullet casing.”

            This was the second time she heard of the Institute, the group that Piper believed stole her son, the bogeyman that Preston flinched to name and that had abandoned Nick on a rubbish heap. “Who are they?”

            “It’s easier to ask ‘what are they’?” Danse corrected grimly. “Robotic slaves of a group of scientists who went underground after the Great War. I assume you know of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology?”

            Minnie went hot and then cold. “I do. My father wanted me to study there. I… didn’t.”

            “They send out their skeleton-synths to strip clean locations in the Commonwealth,” Preston said darkly. “People go missing. Sometimes they’re replaced by copies. But no one knows for certain.”

            “Precisely.” Danse’s voice was grave. “We need to be prepared. If the Institute gets their hands on whatever tech is here they want, we are in acute danger.”

            Minnie cranked up her laser musket. “Let’s go.”

            The skeleton-synths, what Danse called Gen-1s, were armed with laser weapons that fired sky-blue beams. Minnie picked them up automatically – she remembered crystal and circuitry in the few laser weapons she’d handled before the bombs fell. And she wanted to know how their technology worked.

            They found their way to the heart of the research facility, located just under an experimental rocket engine, and Minnie went to activate the back-up generator as Danse held the main room and Preston the door. Just as she finished hacking the computer and started up the generator, she heard the sounds of fighting and turned around to see the Paladin get dogpiled by twenty Gen-1 synths.

            “Do something!” he yelled. “There’s too many!”

            Without any other ideas as Preston’s weapon was too slow to load and fire, Minnie pressed the test engine button and hoped that power armour was as fireproof as Nate claimed.

            The rocket fired up after a countdown and reduced the synths to ashes. Remarkably, Danse survived the inferno with nothing more than some scorching to his power armour. Preston was already sifting through the ashes for whatever they were looking for – and spare fusion cells. The laser muskets required those.

            Regrettably, no deep-range transmitter was on the synth bodies, so it meant they had to take the elevator up to the main level. Of course, there were more synths. Whatever was here, the Institute wanted it badly.

            A fifteen-minute firefight and two laser burns later, Minnie triumphantly fished the deep-range transmitter from the Gen-2 synth (which looked like an eerily humanlike golem) and tossed it to Danse. Another round of looting – she and Preston were truly burdened now – and they were leaving Arcjet.

            Danse pulled off his helmet in the crisp autumn air and sighed. “That could have gone better,” he said dourly.

            Preston’s mouth tightened. “I think that went pretty well myself.”

            “That mission was sloppy. We were caught by surprise more than once and-“ The Paladin wisely shut up when he saw the glitter of anger in Preston’s eyes. “I apologise. I’m used to working with Brotherhood soldiers, not local militia.”

            “We did pretty well for people who’d never faced Institute synths before,” Minnie pointed out. “I’m sorry about cooking you.”

            “Better a few burns than being killed by synths,” Danse observed. “I apologise if I sounded ungrateful, General. You didn’t have to help us.”

            “No, we didn’t,” Minnie agreed. “But you can never have too many friends in the Commonwealth.”

            “I suppose so. Or you could join my team. The Brotherhood of Steel could use a couple good soldiers like yourselves.”

            Preston tensed. He was wary of the Brotherhood of Steel and while their talk of making sure technology didn’t fall into the wrong hands sounded good in theory, Minnie remembered enough of both the military and the scientists to share the Colonel’s misgivings.

            “Your offer is generous but I have enough on my plate as a General looking for her son,” she answered politely. “So I’ll have to decline.”

            “Regrettable.” Danse sighed and hefted the laser rifle in his hands. “At least accept this weapon, Righteous Authority, as a thank you for your aid. Those laser muskets are slow and useless in a firefight.”

            “Thank you,” Minnie said quietly, not wanting to refuse. “I assume you have a backup weapon?”

            “I do.” Danse nodded as he handed her Righteous Authority. “Just give some thought to my offer. Both of you could do more as Brotherhood soldiers than local militia. Ad Victoriam.”

            Minnie nodded to him graciously and strode out of the back lot before Preston lost his temper.

            “As much as I want to return to Diamond City and talk to Nick Valentine about finding Shaun, I think we better return to Tenpines Bluff and then Sanctuary,” she said softly. “I’m not comfortable with how much Institute tech we’re carrying and I want to see what Sturges can make of it.”

            Preston hummed thoughtfully. “If we stop by Starlight on the way, we could build a generator, water purifier and recruitment beacon. Most settlers bring their own seed crops and if nothing else, we can bring some seed tatos down from Abernathy Farm on the return to Diamond City. That will give us four settlements supporting the Minutemen.”

            Minnie sighed. “Yes. I’m worried about the Institute and the Brotherhood. From what Danse implied, the latter’s an army, and the former…”

            “Yeah.” Preston echoed her sigh. “Let’s go, General. We’ll get your son back, I promise.”

…

Within an hour of the recruitment beacon being set up and running at Starlight, a ragged-looking sentient ghoul came wandering in with nowhere else to go and was happy to offer alliance to the Minutemen in return for somewhere to live in peace. He also revealed another potential settlement site – Sunshine Tidings Co-Op, which was to the southwest across the big lake and almost directly south from Abernathy Farm – and Preston marked it down for scouting after they returned to Sanctuary. Minnie was looking exhausted and he wasn’t too chipper himself after days of running around with heavy packs.

            They executed a couple scum chem dealers at Drumlin Diner and were warmly welcomed by Trudy, who was happy to trade a night’s stay and a meal in return for the modded pipe pistols and ammo to match that Minnie carried. The trader’s face brightened even more when the General revealed who they were and that Starlight was being settled.

            The next day was spent travelling northeast despite the siren call of Sanctuary. At Tenpines Bluff, Anna and Wade were happy to offer support and some caps. Minnie asked for seed tatos to be sent to Starlight Drive-Thru instead. She was really getting the hang of being a General.

            Blake cried on getting the silver locket of Connie’s back and pledged his support. In return, Minnie offered to build a machine gun turret as extra security – they had the supplies back in Sanctuary. The farmer would have stripped his crops bare for the Minutemen if they’d have let him. Preston instead persuaded him to donate a sack of tatos and a couple melons. Wild mutfruit grew around Sanctuary, enough to be salvaged for an orchard, and they’d picked up a gourd that could be deseeded for more crops.

            On their return to Sanctuary, Dogmeat barked happily and nearly bowled Minnie over as the Quincy survivors expressed relief. Preston knew they were scared of being left defenceless again. He was glad to be home.

            Codsworth and Sturges had set up irrigation and plumbing systems, a neat rectangle of garden lots outlined and waiting for planting just behind the old Rosa house. Marci and Jun would take over the farming, as they knew how to best, while Mama Murphy had planted herself in a comfortable chair to make rough sleeping bags from salvaged material. Maybe one day they could have proper beds.

            Once their packs were emptied, Preston and Minnie both crawled into sleeping bags. They were bone-tired, especially the Vault Dweller who wasn’t used to this level of physical activity. She was thinner under the Vault suit with great big circles around her melon-green eyes.

            He woke up first, the mid-morning sun shining through a hole in the wall, and unzipped his sleeping bag to lay it over Minnie. She’d earned a day of rest and he needed to go over the recent events with Sturges.

            Breakfast was gourd mash, the seeds being cleaned by Jun for planting later in the day, and Preston decided to clean his laser musket while Sturges looked at the Institute weapons. The Rosa house, with its workbenches, was now their central crafting area by default while they slept in the old Smart house. Codsworth was breaking down a ruined house for steel, wood and concrete.

            When Sturges learned that the Brotherhood was in the Commonwealth, his expression went grim. “I heard a bit about them from traders,” the mechanic observed as he took apart an Institute pistol. “They took over the Capital Wasteland down south about… hmm… thirty years ago. They purified the water there and they’ve got better strains of crops, but…”

            “But?” Preston asked carefully.

            “They rule there, the traders say. And God help you if you’re a ghoul, synth or super mutant.”

            Preston recalled Danse’s disgusted expression when talking about the Institute. “They tried to recruit us after we helped them. Couldn’t leave people to die at the hands of feral ghouls but I’m nearly wishing we hadn’t helped them at Arcjet.”

            “Of course not. But if they’re calling friends here, we’ll have an army on our doorstep. Maybe they wanna go for the Institute.” Sturges sighed and shook his head. “I don’t envy the General her job.”

            Preston looked across the road at Minnie’s house. “She’s good at it.”

            “May be so but she’s still a grieving woman looking for her baby.” Sturges’ expression was compassionate. “You’re gonna have to help her carry the burden, Preston.”

            “I know.”

            “Do you? This ain’t about just carrying out orders. You know the Minutemen protocols, the history and the ways. You know how to handle a firefight and make tactical plans.” Sturges broke apart the pistol to reveal its guts. “In other words, you’re gonna have to make up for what she can’t do.”

            “I can do that,” he reassured the mechanic. “There’s a potential settlement site to the southwest across the lake – Sunshine Tidings Co-Op. If we can set up something there, that’s the entire northwest allied to the Minutemen.”

            Sturges nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a start. When you head back to Diamond City, stop by Graygarden. Trashcan Carla, our new wandering trader, tells me that the robots there are looking for help.”

            Preston’s eyes widened. “Jesus – they’re the breadbasket of the north!”

            “Yep.” Sturges grinned. “So – do I take Sunshine or Graygarden?”

            “Sunshine and you take Dogmeat with you,” Preston immediately said. “I want you fairly close to Sanctuary if something goes wrong – our source told us that the other ghouls had gone feral there and he needed to leave for his own safety.”

            “Got it.” Sturges whistled for Dogmeat, who was by now the Minutemen’s mascot. “Codsworth’s tough enough to handle any attacks and everyone knows to bolt for the Vault if something comes along that he can’t handle, so I can be spared for a day if you two stay here.”

            “Thanks, Sturges.” Preston should have trusted the settlers to have a retreat plan if something went wrong.

            “Welcome. Minnie had a point about all of us having to fight.” Sturges nodded to the power armour in a frame near the workbench. “I also got that. Used to run around with the Atom Cats, so I know how they work.”

            “If you can use it, it’s yours,” Preston agreed with a smile.

            “Thank you.” Sturges touched his forehead as Dogmeat came running up. “If I’m not back by sunset, give me a nice funeral.”

            “I won’t be giving you a funeral,” Preston said, knocking on wood to make sure his words became reality. “Just be careful.”

            “I will.”

            After he went clanking off, Minnie exited her house, looking sleepy and mussed. “Where’s Sturges?”

            “He’s going to check out Sunshine with Dogmeat,” Preston told her. “If we can settle that place, we have the northwest, especially since Graygarden – the breadbasket of the northern Commonwealth – wants our help.”

            She rubbed her eyes and put on her glasses. “Graygarden… I remember that being a farm run by robots.”

            “It still is.”

            “They’ll make for good allies. We need food before winter sets in – assuming it still snows.”

            “It does.” Preston smiled reassuringly at her. “We’ll need to stay here until Sturges returns and probably for another day. Graygarden’s north of Cambridge so we can go to Diamond City when it’s done.”

            “Thank you.” Minnie scratched her head, razorgrain-blonde hair falling through her fingers. “We need to set up communications and supply lines between our settlements.”

            _Thinking like a General,_ he thought proudly.

            “I know,” he said aloud. “And I’ve been giving some thought to that.”

            “Oh?” Minnie looked interested.

            “Yeah. We used to have a base in the south – the Castle. It had a powerful radio beacon that could broadcast across the entire Commonwealth.”

            Minnie leaned against the Rosa house’s wall. “What happened?”

            “Mirelurks overran it a few years ago, killed the last General.” Preston sighed, recalling Hollis’ despair at losing the Castle. “If we can clear the damn things, we have a proper fortified base and God knows what else. I _know_ we used to have artillery – and between you and Sturges…”

            “We could restore it.” Minnie’s eyes brightened. “Preston, you’re a lifesaver.”

            “No, General. You are.” It was easier to call her ‘General’ than ‘Minnie’. He had to remind himself that she was mourning her husband and searching for her child.

            But it was hard when melon-green eyes regarded him with trust and warmth.

            Preston took a deep breath and nodded to the deconstructed Institute pistol. “Check out this while you have breakfast. I’ve got the feeling there’s bigger enemies on the horizon than just mirelurks and raiders – and we need to know how they operate.”

            Minnie’s eyes hardened. “If the Institute killed Nate and took Shaun…”

            He met her gaze. “The Minutemen will be at your back every step of the way.”

…

Sturges was back by sunset with enough radroach meat to feed everyone and tales of the stoned Mr Handy he’d reset to security protocols. Minnie had spent the day examining both the Institute weapons and Righteous Authority to get an understanding of their architecture and trying to stave off the grief she felt. Nate’s loss was a constant gut-wound, one that was aggravated by being in Sanctuary. She expected him to step around the corner, offering a soldier’s advice on how to be a General. But he wasn’t coming back and with everything that was going on, she feared Shaun might be lost too.

            After another restless night, she prepared to head out for Graygarden with Codsworth as Preston needed to figure out how to get enough people to take on a fortress full of giant crabs. She couldn’t stay in Sanctuary any longer. Maybe this Castle would make for a better base.

            More people – mostly ghouls – were at Starlight and Mike, the first settler, was pulling out radioactive rubbish from the pool of water in the middle of the carpark. They accepted the tato and gourd seeds gratefully and amongst the settlers, she found two willing to pick up guns and help the Minutemen. Diamond was a ghoul with a Washington accent while Jack was evasive about his past, but both could handle their pipe pistols competently, and she told them to head north to Preston.

            Graygarden turned out to be having problems with their water supply, which turned out to be contaminated by mirelurks in the inside and surrounded by super mutants on the outside. Minnie was forced to snipe at the damned things from afar as Codsworth closed in to cut and cook them. But they got through it alive, if not intact, and she knew that she could do a mission without Preston at her back – even if it felt naked.

            Supervisor White agreed to aid the Minutemen and assigned two drones to help Minnie set up defences. Laden with fruit and caps, they headed out the next morning and came into Cambridge from the north. That was when she remembered Danse’s warning about ferals in the area.

            They fought them off in College Square but wound up with an infected bite. Minnie didn’t know if the ferals were like classical zombies who could spread the effects like a disease, but she didn’t dare take the chance. She had to see if the Brotherhood would help her out.

            Knight Rhys, the soldier who handled security for the Brotherhood team, met them at the gate. “Thought you didn’t want to join up?” he asked snidely.

            “I’m actually hoping you can spare a stimpak because Codsworth and I just killed a bunch of ghouls in College Square,” Minnie replied acidly. “I can trade some mutfruit for one.”

            He scowled and stepped aside. “Top said you were supposed to be treated politely because you’re apparently a ‘General’.”

            “I _am_ ,” she told him.

            Danse emerged from the police station. “Rhys, what’s going on?”

            “The ‘General’ here would like to trade mutfruit for a stimpak,” the Knight reported dryly.

            “Zambi – ghoul bite,” Minnie told the Paladin. “I don’t know if you can become a ghoul from being bitten by one, but I’d rather not take the chance.”

            Danse nodded gravely. “Radiation makes a ghoul but it’s wise to limit exposure. You’ve proven yourself a friend to the Brotherhood and since we’re not leaving the police station unless we absolutely must, I think we can exchange some medical treatment in return for fresh fruit.”

            “Thank you,” she said sincerely. Despite her misgivings from what she overheard Sturges saying, she was truly grateful the Brotherhood were willing to trade fairly.

            “That is very kind of you, sir,” Codsworth added.

            “Welcome.” Danse led them into the police station where Haylen was typing something on a terminal. “Haylen, the General of the Minutemen has a ghoul bite that needs treatment.”

            The Scribe abandoned her work and soon enough, Minnie was wearing nothing but her underwear as she sat on a sleeping bag. Danse stepped out of his power armour and took a seat, watching Haylen tend the injury by cleaning it out with RadAway before using the stimpak.

            “You have no military training,” the Paladin said bluntly. “You’re a civilian. If you were in the Brotherhood, I’d assign you to the Scribes. Why are _you_ the General of the Minutemen?”

            “Because I see the bigger picture and know which orders to give, trusting my people to carry them out,” Minnie answered carefully. She didn’t want the Brotherhood to think the Minutemen were helpless, especially if they managed to retake the Castle. “I can fight when I have to. I killed three super mutants and two dozen mirelurks today.”

            “I don’t doubt your competency.” Danse nodded to the radio, which was blaring out an old song Nate used to sometimes hum. “But everyone in the Commonwealth knows you’re a pre-War Vault Dweller who’s looking for her son, who was likely taken by the Institute. Just by dint of existence, Minerva Smart, you alter the status quo. The Minutemen, as well-meaning as they might be, won’t have the firepower you need to take on the Institute. And _you_ don’t have the tactical training to overcome that weakness.”

            Minnie reminded herself that her leg was getting mended by a Brotherhood Scribe. “Paladin, I know you’re trying to be helpful. But you know nothing of the Commonwealth or the Minutemen. And you know even less about me.”

            “I know that with the Brotherhood of Steel at your back, you’d be in a role that suits you instead of trying to be something you’re not,” he replied with a sigh. “The Institute is the epitome of everything the Brotherhood stands against. I don’t know if we can get your son back but we can damn well avenge him.”

            “Shaun is alive,” Minnie said, choking back tears. “I will find him.”

            “Or the Institute will kill you to protect their secrets,” Danse said grimly. “Or, with your lack of training, you will get the Minutemen killed _again_. Garvey should have stepped up to the plate and named himself General.”

            His words were harsh and spoken with the bluntness of what he believed to be truth. Maybe he was right. It should have been Nate who survived. Nate would have taken the Castle by now or joined the Brotherhood of Steel-

            “Preston and I are a team,” she said softly. “He has my back and I have his.”

            “Miss Minerva was always good at chess,” Codsworth added loyally. “I think you underestimate them both, Paladin Danse.”

            “Perhaps I do. I just hate the idea of someone I owe the lives of my team to throwing herself into danger,” the Paladin observed softly.

            Minnie decided to turn the tables on him because he’d hurt her deeply. “What’s the Brotherhood of Steel’s purpose in the Commonwealth?” she countered.

            “To eventually deal with the Institute,” Danse responded.

            “I’m going to assume that you called an army.”

            “We confirmed the presence of Institute forces in the area,” he said cagily.

            “You called an army.” Minnie met his dirt-brown gaze. “You say you owe me, Paladin. You also doubt the competency of the Minutemen.”

            “I doubt their ability to achieve much,” he retorted. “What’s your point?”

            “I want you to join us at Fort Independence when I call you. This action will advance the cause of the Minutemen as much as our aid at Arcjet helped the Brotherhood.” Minnie held his gaze. “If we fail, I’ll join the Brotherhood. You get a pre-War Vault Dweller who was extensively trained in the use and maintenance of the technology your order prizes so highly. I know every scientific and technological treasure trove in the Commonwealth.”

            She never thought that the knowledge her father crammed down her throat would be useful.

            Danse’s thick eyebrows rose. “And if you succeed?”

            “The Brotherhood learns that the Commonwealth has a group of citizen soldiers capable of defending it from _any_ threat. If your superiors are wise, they’ll work with us instead of against us.”

            Haylen’s fingers dug into Minnie’s flesh but she didn’t so much as flinch at the pain.

            The Paladin paused before nodding slowly. “If I do this, either way, the debt is paid?”

            “Yes.”

            “Then I’ll do it. I just hope not too many Minutemen die to prove you wrong.”


End file.
